The need for physical exercise and conditioning is well known, especially in a culture where physical exertion is not emphasized as it once may have been, and where the demand on athletes of all ages to compete at a high level is on the rise. An entire industry has developed for the purpose of affording people the opportunity to exercise so as to maintain health, appearance, and competitiveness. Gyms can be found in almost every city and town in the country. All of them have a variety of machines which one can use in their workouts. Some are quite complicated, and some are designed for special muscle groups. To understand the present invention better, a general review of the muscles of the human body should help.
All of the muscles on the exterior of the human body involve a muscle “belly” with a tendon on each end attaching each end to a respective bone. As the muscles flex and extend, they operate the bones as levers. The tendon that attaches one end of a muscle to a bone and remains fixed during flexion is termed the “origin” of the muscle and the tendon that attaches the other end of the muscle to a second bone and moves that bone during flexion is termed the “insertion” of the muscle.
The most common and easily recognized example of these relationships is the biceps brachii, located on the upper arm and attached at two points at the upper arm and scapula and a single lower point on the lower arm slightly past the elbow. The most common exercise for the biceps brachii is the barbell curl (which can be achieved by a dead weight or a machine). A barbell (dead weight) is lifted off the floor with both arms extended, and with the body fully vertical, the barbell is curled to a position below the chin as the elbows are held at the sides of the body. The “origin” of the biceps brachii in this exercise is the two-point upper attachment (fixed) while the “insertion” is the lower attachment that moves the lower arm in a pivotal motion from full extension to full flexion to the position below the chin.
Another common exercise for the biceps brachii is the chinning exercise. The arms grasp an overhead bar and the body is pulled up until the chin is positioned over the bar at full flexion. In this exercise, the “origin” and “insertion” are the reverse of the barbell curl exercise. The attachment to the lower arm is the “origin” (fixed) while the two-point attachment at the upper arm and scapula becomes the “insertion” and performs the movement of the entire body to the position where the chin is positioned over the bar.
By changing the position of muscle flexion based upon the “origin” and “insertion” of a muscle, the “belly” of the muscle becomes more developed and adaptable in strength and coordination.
One can appreciate the difficulty encountered in developing the human muscles using dead weights. It is time consuming at the minimum. Accordingly, there has been considerable development in the past fifty years of exercise machines using various body supports with pulleys and weights to position a user to isolate and exercise specific muscles in a multitude of varying positions.
The present invention is directed to a novel group of workout equipment and to a method to exercise the upper leg muscles, the biceps femoris, commonly referred to as the hamstrings, and also to the quadriceps. The biceps femoris is an upper leg muscle somewhat analogous to the biceps brachii on the upper arm. In a similar manner, the biceps femoris is attached between two points at the upper leg bone and hip bone and a single lower point on the lower leg slightly past the knee.
There are several exercise machines that are well known in which the attachment of the upper leg bone and hip bone attachment is the “origin” and the lower leg bone attachment is the “insertion”. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,962, discloses a sitting position in which the knees are fixed in front and the heels are imposed on a padded roller on a lever that raises a stack of weights as the biceps femoris is flexed to bring the heels close to the buttocks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,077, discloses a bench on which the user lies on his stomach with the knees fixed in front and the heels, again, imposed on a padded roller on a lever that raises a stack of weights as the biceps femoris is flexed to bring the heels close to the buttocks.
Additional examples of machines of this type are the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,468,026; 4,725,056; 5,058,884; 5,094,450; 5,158,520; 5,334,120; 5,569,133; 5,628,714; 5,634,873; 5,711,749; 5,766,118; 6,059,698; 6,059,701; 6,106,444; 6,296,594; and 6,231,486;
None of the known equipment is specifically directed to exercising the upper leg muscles, such as the biceps femoris, and the quadriceps, and to do so in an efficient manner which maximizes muscle performance and development.
The prior art cited above has been cited in an Information Disclosure Statement filed with this application.
In view of the present state of the art, it would be desirable to have equipment available for use in specifically exercising the upper leg muscles, such as the biceps femoris and to provide a technique which one can utilize in using this equipment for efficiently exercising the upper leg muscles.